Can we cultivate peace? Thoughts on Conflict.

 The suffering of people on both sides of the conflict in Gaza is an immense human tragedy.

The suffering in any war is an immense human tragedy made all the more immense by the futility of trying to solve conflicts through violence.

War is not a solution.

Even the "victors" are damaged by it for generations to come.

Humanity has the capacity to live in peace.

We must find the will to do so.

I am reblogging this because I so agree with these words:

"You cannot get to peace through war. You get to peace by choosing peace.

By being brave enough to counter critics who urge you to fight and kill.

By having the courage to trust, when people tell you to fear. You get to peace through the heart, love is the gateway to peace."

A New Year's Dream

I had a dream of a hill with many trees - trees of every shape and size, with leaves of every color, and some with no leaves at all.

A voice in the dream told me that each of the trees had been planted by a different person and that each person watered and cared for their own tree. Each person, in fact, truly loved their own special tree. The trees were so well cared for that they grew to be large and magnificent to behold.

But in order for any tree to remain healthy, all of the trees had to be healthy. Eventually, there were times when someone was unable to care for his or her tree and it failed to thrive. As one tree became weak, other trees would also succumb.

The people who lovingly planted their trees were desperate to save them. They concentrated more and more on the health of their very special trees, hoping to save them from the fate of the weak and dying trees.

No matter how hard they tried to preserve the health of their own tree, they met with failure. More and more trees were dying.

Until .....

..... until, someone walked away from her own tree and started caring for all the trees on the hill. Gradually, as she lovingly watered each tree, even the trees that were furthest away grew healthy again.

From that day on, all of the tree planters, worked together to care for all of the trees. The trees grew to enormous size. People who could see this hill from a distance were amazed by the vibrant colors. Some even thought they saw the whole hill glowing.

Gradually, the hill of trees became known for its healing properties. People made pilgrimages to this amazing forest to be bask in its essence. They were filled with peace of mind and heart just by being there. No special prayer or ritual was necessary to make the healing occur.

When I woke up from this dream, it made so much sense to me. It was so simple, but to me it is about so many things. Not just our connection to nature and our connection to each other;  not just how the welfare of society as a whole is close related to the welfare of each individual, but also, about the peace that emanates from a place where loving care is giving freely.

Dreams are usually hard to put into words that make sense when we are awake. But this dream was so clear to me. It was a great way to start the new year.

Blogging and world peace

I  just had a thought while I was reading some of the blogs I follow

BLOGGING CAN HELP CREATE A PEACEFUL WORLD

The blogging community is made up of strangers from different countries and from different communities within our own countries. We are different ages, genders, sexual orientations. We have different types of educations. We are probably from different social classes. Most likely, we have different views about politics, religion, music, entertainment, and family life. Most of us will never meet in "real" life. We know each other only from our blogs.

Yet, we share our thoughts, feelings and ideas with each other openly. Some of us even feel like friends.

By and large, we treat each other's blogs with respect, sometimes even with reverence. We disagree with posts occasionally, but we don't seek to dominate, invade, or destroy each other's blogs. Most successful bloggers share advice with those of us who don't have many followers. We want to see all bloggers flourish.

All of this makes me think that blogging may help us avoid war and conflict. If we can learn to bring the same collaborative approach to our geo-political interactions that we bring to our blogging, there may be hope for a peaceful future.

I know this sounds naive, ridiculously simple, even pollyanna-ish. I know it doesn't address any of the complex problems that we face. Still, I feel that because bloggers have created communities without geographical boundaries, a seed of peace has been planted. I believe it can be nurtured. I hope that it will.

If you want to know more about Bloggers For Peace, please check out http://everydaygurus.com/category/peace/

And Yet...

Saturday, September 21st was the International Day of Peace. I celebrated it with a group of like-minded folks who gathered at The First Parish Church in Concord, Massachusetts.

It was a lovely event and it felt good to be there. It felt good to know that across the U.S. and around the world, other like-minded people were getting together to celebrate a day dedicated to peace. And yet...

And yet, throughout the U.S. and across the globe, violence continues, and I have to ask myself, after all these years, is the Day of Peace making a difference? I want to believe it is. As a matter of fact, I do believe it is a making a difference, but not enough of a difference.

Yes, there are celebrations of Peace Day around the world, and these celebrations are increasing in number. This is, of course, a good thing. I know it matters and I know that the more of us who have peace in our hearts, the more peaceful the world becomes. And yet...

And yet, after more than 30 years of Peace Day, the geo-political climate is not one of peace. Or is it?  Various studies and statistics tell us that the world is more peaceful than it has ever been. (I include links to these studies at the end of this blog post.) This is encouraging news and it makes me feel that working for peace and celebrating peace is working to a certain degree. It gives those of us who believe world peace is actually possible encouragement to keep believing and to keep working for peace. Most importantly, it shows that the paradigm is shifting away from violence and oppression as the way to resolve conflict. And yet...

And yet, this shift is slow and tentative and easily disrupted. The sad and alarming fact is that the world is less peaceful now than it was five years ago.  110 countries are more violent now than they were in 2008. This fact should really concern all of us because it shows that a trend towards peace and non-violence is easily disrupted. The causes are varied and often reflect the desire of people to have better lives - lives that are characterized by

more freedom,

racial/ethnic, religious and gender equality

secure access to the basic necessities of life, including enough food, a source of income, medical care, and education.

No one can fault people for these desires. And yet...

And yet, it is imperative that we learn how to achieve these goals without violence. This should truly be a primary goal of every country, every government and every person in the 21st century. Recently the world has seen diplomacy prevent the U.S. from dropping missiles in Syria. To those of us who believe in negotiation this is a gratifying testimony to the power of non-violent conflict resolution. And yet...

And yet, the road before us is long and hard. To truly change the paradigm away from war and violence we must work at every level and in every way. We must work on the individual level and the local level. We must work to influence governments to seek peaceful solutions. We must use politics and churches, schools, universities, non-governmental organizations, media, music and literature to change the global consciousness away from war, revenge and retribution. In order to do this, we must also make it our work to ensure that people everywhere have access to the basic necessities of life. This is a tall order. And yet...

And yet, what if we diverted all of the money, brain power and resources that we use to create weapons and military power to finding ways to ensure that all people have basic human rights? How different would our world be by the end of the 21st century? I would like to find out. So, as we learn that the world is becoming more violent again, we must not let go of our belief in peaceful solutions. We must work with more love in our hearts; with more determination to wage peace instead of war; we must not only want peace, we must learn to be peace.  And we must never, ever let ourselves lose hope.

ID-10065199

http://www.policymic.com/articles/47609/5-signs-that-the-world-is-becoming-a-more-peaceful-place

http://www.salon.com/2013/04/23/the_world_is_actually_safer_than_ever/

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/12/us-world-peace-idUSBRE85B05C20120612

http://www.dalailama.com/messages/world-peace/a-human-approach-to-peace

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121119093846.htm

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/479134/20130615/top-ten-peaceful-countries-world-2013-slideshow.htm

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57588747/world-is-a-less-peaceful-place-in-2013-study/

The next morning my mother told us that we must pray for our father and all the good men that had been taken by the enemy. We must pray for our men to be safe and to defeat the enemy. We must pray for God to wreak vengeance on our enemy.

“What does vengeance mean?” my brother asked when were finished praying. My mother, who I had always known as gentle and kind, replied, "Vengeance means doing worse to them than they do to us. If they kill our men, we must kill their men and their children. We must leave them with nothing. Not even hope.”

My brother looked confused. “If God wreaks vengeance on them for killing our men, will our men come back to life?”

“No, they will still be dead, but their deaths won’t be in vain. God will take more lives from them, than He takes from us and that will mean we have won the war.” When I heard these words, I knew that my mother had already lost hope. She would never ask God to kill anyone if she wasn’t overcome with grief and fear.

My brother sat silent for a few seconds, and then he said, “I guess I don’t understand war. What good does it do to kill everyone?” (from I Call Myself Earth Girl, chapter 2.)

Okay, then, I'll do it myself if I have to!

Soooo, dear readers, I made a request at the end of my blog on August 1.(http://whataheartcanhold.wordpress.com/2013/08/01/a-year-of-good-news/ I asked everyone to post a reply that contained some good news, or to tweet some, or to email some, or to post some on Facebook.  Sad to say, only two people replied with good news.  Now, for all I know everyone else has been tweeting and emailing good news like crazy.

I hope so, because even though I am very much a realist, I think learning about good things helps us to feel empowered to do more good to and for each other. I believe that good news lets us know that we can find solutions to complex problems, overcome adversity of all sorts, and be kinder to everyone we meet. We can live with less fear and more love.

Since that blog post did not get much of a response, I am going to post some more good news myself:

In the Really Massive Good News" category:   Mercy Ships!!  Really, if you don't know about these, check them out! They will give you renewed faith in humanity. https://www.mercyships.org/about-mercy-ships/     Their website says: "A dream that began 35 years ago in a young man’s heart has become reality—a big, white, state-of-the-art hospital ship that delivers hope and healing to people around the globe living in dire circumstances."  

Not only are doctors and nurses giving free, state-of-the-art medical care to the poorest of the poor, but also, they have to pay their own way to do it. I have to admit, that level of generosity astounds me. Again, from their website: 

Volunteers with Mercy Ships are responsible for paying all costs associated with their service, including crew fees, travel expenses, passports, immunizations, insurance and personal expenses.  Because of this commitment, Mercy Ships is able to use direct contributions from its supporters to bring hope and healing to the poorest of the poor.

Crew members typically pay for their service by raising support from family, friends and churches or by saving money for their time onboard. A financial-health service for crew members – Financial Accountability, Coaching and Encouragement (FinACE) – helps volunteers develop a budget, determine the best ways to fund their service, and provide support raising tools, including a personal support raising web page.

Think about it! It humbles me to know that there are such generous, compassionate, loving people traveling around the goal to ease the pain and suffering of people they don't know. You may have seen the story of the Africa Mercy Ship on 60 Minutes recently. If not, it is definitely worth finding and watching.  http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57596889/africa-mercy-hospital-of-hope/

And wait, just one more thing, a little note from CBS: Since "Africa Mercy" first aired, a $20 million donation toward a new ship was made by philanthropists Sue and Bill Gross.

 In the Hope for the Future category:  I attended a workshop sponsored by 350 Massachusetts  (of 350.org fame) and A Better Future Project. Everyone who attended was there because of their concern about the environment. This was a group of people who not only care, but also, who actually want to do something about it. There were about 20 people in attendance. Some people traveled a couple of hours to get to the meeting!

One of the things that I really loved about it, but more importantly, that gave me the most hope was the make-up of the group. Male and female, older and younger, native-born Americans and non-native born, including a man in a wheelchair who came with his aide. I will continue to be part of this group and I expect everyone who attended will do the same. 

And another in this category:  City Growers used Kickstarter.com  to fund a campaign for urban farms. Their goal was $15,000 and people pledged donations of $29,305! This is how the money will be used -  City Growers is producing green jobs by creating nutrient-dense food farms on vacant lots throughout Boston's urban neighborhoods.  You can check this program out at  http://www.cityofboston.gov/news/default.aspx?id=6264

I'm sure you have some good news. Please share it here or tweet to @CallMeEarth Girl.  Let's spread good news, create optimism and do some good!

A Year of Good News

I listen to the news. A lot. I do it by choice, even though it often stresses me out. To me, it seems that the news reporting concentrates on what is wrong. Maybe the fact that I perceive it that way says more about me than it does about the news reports. But I don't think so. We hear about the countries that are in conflict with each other. We hear about the countries that have inner conflict. We hear about the inability of our own government to solve problems. We hear about how polarized liberals and conservatives are. We hear about people all over the world who want to harm us in some way. We hear about the various parts of the world that we think we need to harm before they get the chance to harm us. We hear about crimes of all sorts. We hear about the increasing rate of infections that are contracted during hospitalizations. We hear about the dangers of serious disease from ticks, mosquitoes and amoeba lurking in lakes and ponds. We hear about weather disasters.  We hear about the failure of our schools. We hear about the crumbling of our infrastructure. I could go on, but you get the point.

Am I saying that we don't need to know these things? Not exactly.  I am saying that we need balance. We need to hear at least as much good news as bad news. We need to understand that the good news is not the exception.

Am I over-simplifying? Yes, of course. For the sake of brevity, I have eliminated any sort of complexity.  But if you google the term "ratio of bad news to good" you will find that most analysts agree that the overwhelming majority of the news reported by mainstream media is negative.

Sure, there are feature stories about someone who has overcome a tribulation of some sort. They are interesting to us because we perceive them to be an exception. But mostly we hear about people and situations that make us fearful or angry. And, predictably, we make choices based on this fear and anger.

But what if we are making those choices based on a false premise? What if most countries are not in conflict? What if most people have not been victims of crimes? What if, in fact, there is more good news than bad?

What if the stories we read in newspapers and heard on the radio and TV were stories about the thousands upon thousands of times a day when something good happens somewhere in the world?

Right about now, you might be thinking, "But that is not news, that is just regular life."  Exactly my point. The good things that always happen are not considered to be newsworthy.

I would like to try a worldwide experiment in which mostly good news would be reported for a whole year. I wonder how different our perception of the world would be. How different would our perception of each other be? How different would our perception of ourselves be?

Would we find that there is less to fear and more to celebrate, less to be angry about and more to be grateful for? Would we be less stressful? Would we feel that we are more able to solve the problems that do exist? Would we think that far-out, wildly unrealistic ideas like world peace and ending hunger were possible?

I don't know the answer to this. But I would like to find out.

Let's start our own experiment. Please post one piece of good news as a comment after reading this.

Then, for the rest of the year, blog, tweet, tumble, instant message, text, or email some good news every day. Sure, all the bad news will still be out there, but we can flood cyberspace with lots of good news too!

Here's one to get us started. I left my change purse containing $75 in cash on the counter in a convenience store one afternoon not too long ago. The purse had no identification in it.  I didn't realize I had left it until about 10 p.m.  I was pretty sure that I would never see it again. But I went back to the store to see if it was there. The young man behind the counter said, "We were hoping the owner would realize she left it here." He handed it back to me. I thanked him and drove home. All of the money was still in the purse. I have to admit, I was surprised. It would have been so easy for the clerk or another customer to take the purse and the money. But, most people are honest. Good news!

One last idea, you might even be able to BE the Good News in someone else's report.

Engaging Peace!

As someone who believes in the possibility of a more peaceful world, Kathie Malley-Morrison of  Engaging Peace knocked my socks off  when she appeared as the featured guest on Oneness and Wellness, a local access cable show out of Dedham, MA.

(You  can view the segment by going to the show's website: www.onenessandwellness.com  Click on the "shows" link and  look for Engaging Peace through Book and Blog.)

Malley-Morrison has communicated with people all over the world hoping to learn their views on war and the possibility of creating a world culture that uses nonviolent means to solve conflict.   I was so impressed with the work of Malley-Morrison that I went immediately to her website (www.engagingpeace.com) after viewing the show, foregoing my usual practice of putting it on a list of sites to check out sometime in the future.

Her mission is to educate about alternatives to warfare, and to foster engagement and activism for the cause of world peace. Her blog, as well as the award-winning monthly newsletter, Choosing Peace for Good, offer articles that bring academic peace studies and stories of activism to the general public.

For me, this website is like a treasure chest of resources! It includes not only research and articles, but also books and films about war and peace. Even if you never read one book or article on the site, just watching the movies would give you an education on the place of war in our culture, in our national psyche, even in our hopes and fears.  Some of the films, most notably for me Beyond Belief (the story of 9/11 widows who go to Afghanistan to help poverty-stricken women and form a tremendous bond with them),  show the possibilities for peace through individual person to person interaction.

I urge you to check out this site if you are interested in any of their goals:

1. Promote optimism concerning the possibility of peace

2. Explore how people in power and the mainstream media persuade citizens that various forms of government-sponsored aggression, such as war and torture, are justifiable

3. Present examples of serious conflicts that have been resolved without warfare

4. Demonstrate that a major pathway to peace is through responsible activism

5. Translate into user-friendly language the best of relevant scientific and academic work contributing to the understanding of war and peace. In particular, we will periodically mention some of the major results from our own international research team.

6. Help readers find useful tools and important resources to support their own efforts to seek and promote peace.

7. Encourage readers to share their opinions and contribute their own stories and examples of “engaging peace.”

As a matter of fact, I urge you to go to this site even if you are not particularly interested in the topics listed above, because I am pretty sure you will find something on this site that peaks your interest if you happen to care about the future, the present, the environment, veterans, children, or families.

If for no other reason, I would go there just to see the ticker at the bottom right of the home page that keeps updating the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

My enthusiasm for the work of Kathie Malley-Morrison and the Engaging Peace website stems from my beliefs  ~

I believe the world can and will move to a culture of peace in which war will be the rare exception.

I believe when people understand the environmental impact of war, the urgency of peace-making will become more evident.

I believe we owe our veterans a better life than the one so many of them face when they return home from military service.

I believe non-violent conflict resolution is a possibility at every level from individual conflict to national conflicts. We will never rid the world of conflict, but we can rid the world of war.

I believe each individual can and should make a difference.

I believe that none of this is simple or easy.

I believe in you and me and our power to make a difference.